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American Civil War
The American Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, was a civil war in the United States of America that ran from 12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865. It pitted a number of secessionist states in the southern portion of the country against states in the northern part which wanted to keep the country united. During at least part of this time, Nick Knight served as a doctor with the Union Army (of the North). Despite being affected adversely by the blood of the wounded, he was able to save many lives, using his powers of hypnosis to ease their pain. Other vampires, however, including his master, LaCroix, followed the armies in order to feed upon soldiers dying on the battlefield. When an army photographer, Sullivan, took pictures of LaCroix feeding, this threatened to expose the existence of vampires to the mortal world. However, the Enforcers intervened, killing Sullivan and destroying his photographic equipment. The American Civil War In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. The Republican victory in that election resulted in seven Southern states declaring their secession from the Union even before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. Both the outgoing and incoming US administrations rejected the legality of secession, considering it rebellion. Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a US military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state, leading to declarations of secession by four more Southern slave states. Both sides raised armies as the Union assumed control of the border states early in the war and established a naval blockade. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made ending slavery in the South a goal of the war, dissuading the British from intervening. One of the Confederate commanders, Robert E. Lee, won a number of battles in the eastern part of the country; but, in 1863, his northward advance was turned back after the Battle of Gettysburg. In the west, the Union gained control of the Mississippi River at the Battle of Vicksburg. This split the Confederacy. Long-term Union advantages in men and material were realized in 1864 when Ulysses S. Grant fought battles of attrition against Lee, while Union general William Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia, and marched to the sea. Confederate resistance collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The American Civil War was the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of 620,000 soldiers plus an undetermined number of civilian casualties. Its legacy includes the ending of slavery in the United States and the strengthening of the role of the federal government. The social, political, economic and racial issues of the war brought changes that helped make the country a united superpower. ::Adapted from the Wikipedia article on the American Civil War. Category:Historical Background